Sony to Close 20 out of 31 US Retail Stores

And the heads keep on rolling at Sony. After the company decided to close down its VAIO division, resulting in a massive loss for the year for the troubled electronic division, news spread in the last 24 hours of Sony employees who were suddenly left without a job. In the near future, Sony plans to cut 5,000 global jobs with 1,000 of those coming from the US. The worst hit part of Sony will be their San Diego division, which will lose 500 employees. This all came at the awkward time where Santa Monica Studios, one of the premier and most prestigious PlayStation game studios is also firing 50 employees and cancelling a high profile, internal project. With all of this news manifesting itself in a day’s time, Sony has also come to announce that will be closing the majority of their retail stores in the US.

According to Sony, the company will close 20 of their retail outlets, leaving only 11 stores standing. Mike Fasulo, President and COO of Sony Electronics:

While these moves were extremely tough, they were absolutely necessary to position us in the best possible place for future growth. I am entirely confident in our ability to turn the business around, in achieving our preferred future, and continue building on our flawless commitment to customer loyalty through the complete entertainment experience only Sony can offer.

While the news in some ways isn’t a total shock, seeing how a majority of the Sony retail channels I’ve ever visited have traditionally been empty, it’s still another blow to the company’s image. Even worse is for the many employees who will now have to seek employment elsewhere. The list of stores that will remain open and those that will be closed is as follows:

11 Sony stores to remain open

Mall

Location

Fashion Valley

San Diego, CA

Retail store

University Town Center

San Diego, CA

Retail store

South Coast Plaza

Costa Mesa, CA

Retail store

Stanford

Palo Alto, CA

Retail store

NY Flagship, Sony Plaza

New York, NY

Retail store

Roosevelt Field

Garden City, NY

Retail store

Walt Whitman

Huntington Station, NY

Retail store

Mall at Millenia

Orlando, FL

Retail store

Aventura

Aventura, FL

Retail store

Houston Galleria

Houston, TX

Retail store

The Americana at Brand

Glendale, CA

Retail store

*Sony retail store on SPE lot will remain open

Closing – 20 stores

Tysons, VA

University Village, WA

Galleria Dallas, TX

Forum Shops, NV

Pentagon, VA

Boca Raton, FL

Menlo Park, NJ

Las Americas, CA

Camarillo, CA

Aurora, IL

Gilroy, CA

Wrentham, MA

Pleasant Prairie, WI

San Marcos, TX

Cherry Creek, CO

Dolphin, FL

Century City, CA

Valley Fair, CA

Comcast, PA

Central Valley, N.Y. (Woodbury Common Outlets)

While Apple has seen great success with their retail channels as they become the highest grossing outlets in the planet by square footage, Sony has struggled to draw much attention to their channels. In early 2011, Sony launched a new retail initiative with a completely redesigned experience that was designed to help the company get back into the highly competitive retail environment. We went along with Mike Fasulo for the launch. Microsoft has also attempted to compete with Apple in the retail space and their success has been marginal at best. Despite that, Microsoft, unlike Sony commands a huge war chest and is able to sustain short term losses for a long term vision.

We’re once again truly saddened by the loss of jobs and negative effects on lives that these events tend to bring with them and wish those employees who are affected by this the best in this hard time.

SAN DIEGO, FEBRUARY 26, 2014- Sony Electronics today announced plans to restructure its organization to maintain its competitiveness in an evolving consumer electronics market.

In line with Sony Corporation’s Feb. 6 earnings announcement outlining an estimated headcount reduction of roughly 5,000 employees globally, Sony Electronics confirmed a total staff reduction of one-third by the end of the calendar year, affecting approximately 1,000 employees across all sites. In addition, in an effort to further streamline costs and continue focus on existing partner relations, Sony announced the closure of 20 U.S. Sony Stores

“While these moves were extremely tough, they were absolutely necessary to position us in the best possible place for future growth,” said Mike Fasulo, President and COO of Sony Electronics. “I am entirely confident in our ability to turn the business around, in achieving our preferred future, and continue building on our flawless commitment to customer loyalty through the complete entertainment experience only Sony can offer.”

Sony maintains its position as a leader in the electronics industry, pushing the limits of innovation with products and experiences exclusive to Sony. It continues to drive its industry leadership in premium products across all of CE, including all-things-4K, and further plans to reinforce its market leadership through strengthening its 4K product lineup and bolstering 2K models in 2014, with a continued commitment to the future success of its U.S. television business. The company will place an increased focus on its premium products – including its digital imaging line, high-resolution audio, and full suite of professional solutions – while leveraging its strengths in hardware, content and gaming.

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Martin

Wow, century city just opened not too long ago. Bleak times indeed. I visited both century city and university village locations less than a year ago. Loved both but have to admit, their stores were empty while apples was packed in both locations. One can certainly not blame Sony as they have made herculean efforts to advertise and developed superior electronics to that of Samsung and Apple in the last year. But the market can be finicky and go straight for brand names and whats hot nowt. Such a shame.

What’s worse about the Century City (I visit there often) is that it was their new flagship store. That’s where they kicked their new retail efforts off. Like you said though, there is an Apple Store 3 stores down and it’s half the size and it’s packed. The Sony store was a ghost town, the same as the Microsoft store a bit down from them.